OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A Palestinian paramedic abducted by Israeli forces from Gaza during the genocide has died in Israeli custody amid reports of torture and medical negligence.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) confirmed the death of Hatem Ismail Rayan.
Rayan was a paramedic who was held at the Israeli Al-Naqab prison since Israeli forces abducted him from Gaza on December 27, 2024, alongside his injured son, Muath, who also remains in detention.
He was arrested at the Kamal Adwan Hospital when Israeli forces stormed the largest medical facility in northern Gaza. They carried out a forced evacuation of patients and staff, and arrested its director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya who is still detained without charge.
Rayan is one of more than 100 detainees who have died in Israeli prisons since the start of the Israeli genocidal war in Gaza in October 2023. Only 88 of them have been officially identified, 52 of whom were from Gaza. The total number of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli custody since 1967 now stands at 325, the prisoners’ rights groups noted.
According to a recent report by Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHRI), based on data obtained from the Israeli army and Israel Prison Service (IPS), in many cases the death comes as a direct result of torture, medical neglect, and food deprivation by soldiers and prison officers. Of those detained from Gaza, who make up the majority, less than one-third were classified by the Israeli army itself as militants, meaning Israel was responsible for the deaths of dozens of Palestinian civilians in custody. — QNN
